Benefits December 13, 2004

Study: HR Staff Key to Meeting $$$ Goals

December 13, 2004 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The effectiveness of a company's Human Resources staff directly affects its ability to grow and fulfill its financial goals, a new study found.
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A HR.com report (free registration is required) said the study found that it is imperative a company create a workplace that aligns its’ personnel strategy with its’ business strategy and that the people with the primary responsibility for that task are in HR.

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According to the report, the companies studied that could sustain a competitive advantage had HR representatives who contributed to these results through the “comprehensive deployment of their Human Capital initiatives” across five dimensions. The study showed that when HR was ineffective in two or more of these dimensions, it was unable to make significant or material bottom-line contributions.

The five dimensions are:

  • Strategic Alignment , the extent to which the Human Capital strategy is aligned with the company’s business strategy. When HR officials focused on the priorities of the business, they were rated by senior managers as Strategic Business Partners and were 38% more likely to be directly involved in overall business planning.
  • HR ROI, where HR demonstrates a balance of investment versus results and a cost-benefit analysis was regularly a part of the decision making process.
  • HR Operations , the top performing companies saw their HR staff members devoting their time to the most value added of tasks and routinely deploying best practices. Where HR staff spent more than 40% of their time on administrative processes, there was no material contribution to company performance.
  • HR Technology was used by the top performers to increase efficiency by 23%, improve accuracy by 52%, and reduce costs by 61%.
  • Stakeholder Alignment, crafting HR policy, practice, and process around the needs, wants, and expectations of line managers and employees. The study showed significant achievement by top performing companies in employee productivity, retention of top talent, the ability to be seen as “an employer of choice”, and to receive recognition as a “great place to work.”

The Benchmark Partners, a human resource benchmarking and consulting firm, conducted the study.

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